I’m currently playing in the British Major Open, and I thought I’d use the rest day to give a quick update here. So far it’s going rather well; I’m on 4/6, with a rating performance of 2184. I need 3.5/5 in week 2 in order to qualify for next year’s British Championship (main section), so that’s the aim.
In other news, the new English Chess Federation grades came out last week, and I’ve had a modest increase to 162. However, this was quite heavily affected by my poor performance in Paignton at the start of the season; if this was discounted (which seems reasonable, given that I was just starting to study then), my new grade would be in the 170s. My ECF performance at the Major Open so far is exactly 200, but it remains to be seen whether I can maintain that level over an extended period.
The rules for qualification are at
http://www.britishchess2011.com/qualifying_regulations_2011.htm
You only need 7/11 if you were born in 1989 or later.
That seems to be how to qualify for this year’s Championship. Presumably for next year you will only need 7/11 if you were born in 1990, which just excludes me.
Hey Will,
I see you are doing well in this years M/O, I like your blog buddy! I’m going to add a link on my blog for you!
Check out mine mattywebbchess.comI’m doing regular post for the British!
Good luck from the rest of the event.
Matty
Hi Matty,
Thanks. Nice, professional-looking blog. I’ll reciprocate with a link if/when I get round to adding a links section.
Good luck to you too, unless you happen to be paired with me in one of the last rounds!
Will
Really liked your game against Alex Combie; well played!
Thank you. I liked it too. How did you see the game? Is it online somewhere or did you watch it while I was playing? I thought I was on track for a similar game against Richard Savory yesterday, but unfortunately that went horribly wrong near the end. My game from today is really disgusting, so I recommend you steer clear of that one!
The official site has pgn files for the Major Open, so thought I’d see how you were getting on! The link for others who might be interested is here.
Thanks for the link. There’s an option for downloading the games from the pairings page, but that just gives blank games without any moves, so I assumed they hadn’t been uploaded yet. I’ll have a look at your King’s Indian material later.
Also, there’s some King’s Indian stuff on my blog, which you might find useful(?), some classics by Geller and Najdorf: here. I think you’re a wee bit stronger than me (Scottish grades are a law unto themselves, so don’t pay too much attention to them), but hopefully there might be helpful things lurking on my page as I’m trying to improve too (I’m aiming for FM, not GM, but still).
Forgot to include link – brain not in gear – sorry, it’s here.